Gekijôban Hunter x Hunter: The Last Mission

Hopefully this won't be the last hunter x hunter film since it left a sour taste in my mouth especially after watching their great first feature film Phantom Rouge (which i also reviewed).

The good is mostly the cast. The foursome is back as well has their past masters with Wing and Zushi from the heaven's arena arc and Biscuit from greed island. Hisoka is also here but in a mostly forgettable fashion once again. The action is still great and there is a lot of it. Unlike Phantom rouge this film has the tone of the early series so more of a focus on combat minutia and abilities and less on emotion.

Now the flaws which are many. The biggest of which is the complete misdirection of the plot. Early on it seems like it's gonna be Battle Olympia which was my most anticipated thing in the series that actually never came to fruition. And right when your at you're at peak excitement for this tournament it instead goes into another boring villain with boring revenge scheme.

The worst part of that is who the revenge is for. It's for Netero so chronologically speaking this film happens before the Chimera Ant arc. Which removes all of the stakes. The villains are a little fleshed out but not anywhere close to where it needed to be. The film's focus was on their combat prowess and reasons for revenge so falling at both these goals is pretty sad given what we could've had instead.

Score is still favorable since it's use of music is much improved from their last film and the action is as fluid as ever. Plus for every frustrating moment like Leorio mostly getting the shaft there was a great moment in classic hunter x hunter fashion.

So i would watch this first and then Phantom Rouge unless you like the tone of the earlier arcs instead of the more deep and emotional later arcs.

This was a green review